Exposé Read online

  Over her shoulder, Colin could see that Adam Jaymes was staring him down, his brown eyes strangely lifeless, as though hiding a great dark secret. What was it, what was going on in that famous head of his? “Yes, of course,” Colin replied, smiling and apologetic. “I’m sorry for my language but I’ve heard all this before and I frankly I find it offensive.”

  Point four, wedding ring finger. “If you are in the public eye, your behaviour will be scrutinised. It’s right that your behaviour is scrutinised. With all due respect, if the Government brings in measures to control the press then that power of scrutiny will be lost. Our ability to expose corruption and hypocrisy will be lost. As an example, the MPs’ expenses scandal would never have been exposed. That’s the harsh reality of the sort of press controls Adam Jaymes is endorsing.”

  “That’s complete nonsense,” Adam Jaymes replied, his tone remaining even-tempered and polite. “And besides, your newspaper barely covered the MPs’ expenses story. Throughout that entire episode, you continued to concentrate on the private lives of the rich and famous. One of the biggest political scandals of the century and the Daily Ear felt it more important that its readers hear about the sexual indiscretions of the latest Big Brother housemates.”

  His voice sounded far more English than when he’d been a guest judge on America’s Got Talent the week before, Colin thought. “We need to have the freedom and the protection, in law, to expose hypocrisy,” Colin replied, trying to create a neat segue into his big reveal about Adam’s HMI funded film role, but Adam talked over him.

  “You don’t expose hypocrisy. You expose private matters that are no one else’s concern,” the actor replied. “You pursue celebrities regardless of the impact you have on their health, their lives or their loved ones. And you do this to sell papers and to make money, not because there are any genuine, honourable, editorial justifications for your actions.”

  “Well, talking about making money - ” Colin started, but his second attempt at a segue was interrupted again, this time by the presenter.

  “Colin, if I can move on to today’s inquiry which reviewed your paper’s controversial coverage of the vicious street attack on premiership footballer Steve Yorke. He was beaten unconscious outside a night club by a group of fans from a rival club. Your photographer had been waiting outside the club and took photographs during the attack, but did not intervene.”

  “Now, be fair, there were a lot of them. There was nothing he could do,” Colin said. He knew this story well and felt he was on solid ground. “And those photographs helped catch the men who carried out the attack. They’re in prison now because of our photographs.”

  The presenter nodded. “However, it was confirmed at today’s hearing that your photographer was so busy taking pictures, he didn’t call the police or even for an ambulance. What he did do, however, was collect a blood sample from the scene of the attack which you then had tested for HIV.”

  “And the test came back positive!” Colin exclaimed proudly, as though the test result somehow justified the action.

  “And you put that on the front page of your paper,” Adam interrupted. “That poor man had been viciously assaulted and when he eventually woke up in hospital he discovered he was HIV positive from the front page of your newspaper. Are you seriously going to argue that was in any way ethical?”

  Colin was nodding, hard. “Yes, I can. Premiership footballers sleep around. Steve Yorke could have been having unprotected sex with dozens of women. We likely saved a lot of innocent girls from the risk of infection. It was a tough call, but we made it and we stand by it.”

  “And what about the Daily Ear’s controversial ‘Celebrity DNA’ project. Your paper secretly acquired DNA samples from four male celebrities and their children, and then you had those samples tested to see if those men genuinely were the fathers of those children.”

  “That’s a little bit out of context,” Colin said, knowing that in truth the Newsnight presenter had hit the nail on the head.

  “That’s already been widely condemned by – among others - MPs and children’s charities. Even the Press Complaints Commission stated it was ‘not entirely happy’ with the practice, which is one of the strongest criticisms the PCC has ever made. And at today’s hearing, the editors of two rival tabloids both said they were appalled by it. When your own peers are criticising your conduct, it must suggest you are on very shaky ground.”

  Colin glared at Adam who appeared to be sailing happily through the interview with little challenge, and he was left with the unsettling feeling there was more going on than a simple TV debate. The actor’s cool confidence wasn’t just bravado. It ran deeper than that. Colin suspected Adam Jaymes was holding back, as though the actor didn’t feel the need to participate completely in the discussion. And Colin’s unease was made all the more intense when he noticed the tiniest hint of a smile on the actor’s handsome face.

  “How do you think he’s doing?” Fiona asked.

  “She does seem to be picking on him, doesn’t she?” Mrs Merroney said. “Why isn’t she having a go at that dark-haired boy instead?”

  “She’s probably not allowed to,” Terry said, looking less than impressed with the way the interview was going. “You know all those stupid equality policies the BBC has. She’d probably break some law if she had a go at a gay bloke.”

  “Oh, I don’t think he’s gay,” Mrs Merroney said, shaking her head. “I remember him in Eastenders. He got Sharon pregnant.”

  “Now, we have to talk about the soap actress Pearl Martin,” the presenter continued. “Adam, of course, you were her co-star for many years and are on record for blaming the Daily Ear for her suicide. And at the inquiry this week, her sister Patricia claimed Pearl took her own life because she couldn’t cope with the Daily Ear’s highly critical coverage of her battle with depression. In particular, your columnist Valerie Pierce was singled out.”

  Colin threw up his hands. How was this simple discussion running away from him? “The Press Complaints Commission rejected almost all of the complaints that were made against Valerie,” he retorted. “And I think it important to remember that Pearl Martin was a drug addict and an alcoholic – ”

  “She was neither a drug addict nor an alcoholic,” Adam immediately retorted and for the briefest of moments there was a hint of genuine passion in his voice. Pearl had been his friend. She had played his older sister on EastEnders and by all accounts they’d had an equally close relationship off-screen. If anything was ever going to liven up this discussion, it was always going to be a mention of Pearl. “She was not a drug addict. She had prescription drugs to help manage her depression. And she was not an alcoholic, but she was accused of such by Valerie Pierce if she was photographed with as much as a single glass of wine in her hand. She struggled every day just to get out of bed, and every day her friends and family tried to hide the latest edition of your disgusting rag from her so she wouldn’t see the latest fabricated story. She lost her career because of you. Her child was taken into care because of you. And in the end she took her own life because of you. To be honest, Colin, you may as well have driven her to Beachy Head yourself.”

  Colin noted a familiar image of Pearl had appeared on the screen behind the presenter. It was the picture most the papers had published on their front pages, the morning after her body had been found at the foot of Beachy Head. Her ghostly pale features and grey eyes had always made Colin feel she was never meant to have a long or happy life. But it wasn’t that picture that the Daily Ear had used on its front page that day. Leonard Twigg had insisted on a photograph that appeared to show Pearl staggering from a nightclub draped over Adam Jaymes’ shoulders and waving a half-empty pint glass in her hand.

  “She was a bad mother,” Colin retorted abruptly, “and that had nothing to do with depression. One minute she was claiming to be a supermum, juggling her responsibilities at home with her acting career. The next she’s off at a showbiz party and her kid is home alone.”

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p; “That never happened,” Adam said. “Valerie Pierce wrote that with absolutely no evidence.”

  “It was hypocrisy, and it is absolutely right to expose hypocrisy. And that is what the Daily Ear is proud to do.” Colin didn’t waste airtime expressing sympathy for Pearl’s family anymore. He had done that in the past but the Ear’s PR director, Derek Toulson, had told him not to do it again. He felt an expression of sympathy suggested the paper was in some way culpable. Instead Colin was told to defend the Ear’s coverage as strongly as if Pearl were still alive. “If you place yourself in the public eye, the way you behave will be scrutinised. If you publicly state that people should live their lives against a certain set of values, then you have obliged yourself to live by those same values. And the Daily Ear will use all means that are not illegal to expose lies, hypocrisy or fraud.”

  There was a moment of pause. The presenter was about to ask Adam for a final response, but before she could utter any words he fixed Colin with his sparkling eyes and posed a question of his own. “But surely, that can be applied to you?” he said, that tiny smile looking more pronounced.

  “I’m a reporter. My job is to investigate – ”

  “No, no,” Adam interrupted. “You have placed yourself in the public eye. And you have spent the past year promoting a set of values. Your newspaper, the Daily Ear, has a very pronounced set of values. And you use those values - quite aggressively - to justify your exploitation of the private lives of celebrities.”

  The presenter raised her hand, ready to interrupt, but the voice in her ear told her not to. “Let this one play out,” it said.

  “The Daily Ear stands for traditional British family values, there is no secret about that,” Colin said. And he suddenly realised he had nothing else to say. His mind had gone blank. Adam had him completely flummoxed. That stare. That hint of a smile. Where the hell was this line of questioning going? Colin couldn’t even remember what point he was supposed to be making with his little finger.

  “Your paper and, indeed, you yourself have exposed the private lives of hundreds - if not thousands - of celebrities over the past 30 years. And a staple part of your work has been catching married celebrities who are having an affair.”

  Colin nodded.

  “But is it not an hypocrisy for someone in the public eye, as you are, to expose adultery through your newspaper when you are, in fact, committing adultery yourself?”

  The living room was silent. Fiona stared at the telly, her face glowing bright red. She was humiliated at the mere suggestion that her husband was being unfaithful, never mind that the accusation had been made on national TV. Her own parents were watching. Her friends. Her ex-colleagues from the restaurant. She’d tweeted and told them all to watch. And she had never doubted Colin, not once. Throughout all of his assignments and all of those conferences, she had never questioned him or asked to go with him, or checked up on him. She had never once looked at his emails, or gone through the messages on his phone. She’d never checked his credit card bill or called a hotel to check he was actually there. It’s what made their marriage work, Colin had said. She was different to all the other reporters’ wives, he had said. And that was why he loved her so much.

  Out of the corner of her eye she could see Terry leaning forward in his seat, looking at her with his mouth open. “Where the hell did that come from?” he asked, sounding completely perplexed. Fiona found his confusion strangely reassuring. Surely if Colin was having an affair, his best mate would know it? She turned to him and shrugged.

  And then she noticed his wife, Laura. Funny, loud, outspoken, lovely Laura. Busty, brassy, forty-something Laura. Best friends with Terry and Colin since school. Colin had even been best man at their wedding. But now, in the sitting room, she wasn’t loud or outspoken. She was silent. Frozen, in fact, her eyes fixed on the TV screen, her face completely white. “Are you OK, Laura?” Fiona asked. And when Laura didn’t respond, Fiona’s world fell apart.

  The presenter had intended to intervene but the voice in her ear kept telling her not to, and Adam wasn’t about to stop. He leant forward and suddenly, in a smooth, sweeping motion, pulled a leather satchel from under his chair.

  “I think, sadly, that’s all we have time for ... ”, the presenter started. But no one was listening anymore. Adam was centre stage. He pulled a number of large white cards from the satchel and sat with them on his lap, smiling. And then he turned the first card around, and there – on the other side – was a photograph of Colin in some bar, kissing Laura. “Now, I know that isn’t your wife, Colin. Because your wife is a red-head, not blonde. And she’s also much younger. And pregnant.”

  The presenter looked at the picture. She then looked to the gallery, and then at Colin, and then back to the gallery. And then back to the picture. ‘That’s certainly not his wife,’ she thought.

  Colin’s head was about to explode. Blood and fear and guilt and panic were pumping through his veins at a rate of knots. He broke out in a cold sweat, and could feel the perspiration breaking through his shirt and trickling over his raised brow. He had no more words, just a huge, dry lump in his throat and a look of absolute sweaty horror on his face.

  “And what about this one?” Adam asked, and flipped over the next card. There were Colin and Laura again, still kissing. But this time in the street, outside a hotel. Laura’s hair was much shorter in that one. Clearly a different occasion.

  “And this one?” Not kissing this time, but both in bath robes, standing on a hotel balcony, enjoying the view and a morning fag together.

  Laura left without a word. She simply put down her glass of wine, collected her coat from the hall cupboard and let herself out.

  Terry, filled with hate and rage, didn’t stop her. He didn’t even acknowledge her. But the moment he heard the front door bang, he burst into tears and sat with his head in his hands sobbing. Mrs Merroney went over and held him. “I never liked her,” she said. “I always thought she was a dirty girl. That’s why I didn’t let Colin go out with her at school.”

  Fiona didn’t say a word. She sat quietly stroking her pregnancy bump and wondering what she should do with the leftover canapés. But as Terry’s sobbing grew louder she could feel a panic beginning to rise up inside of her. She was alone and pregnant, living in a city where she barely knew anyone and where her husband had just been publicly outed as an adulterer. The unpleasant reality of the situation was about to take hold and she couldn’t bear the thought of crying in front of Colin’s parents or Colin’s equally shell-shocked friend. She heaved herself up from the settee and collected as many glasses and plates as she could and then quietly walked through to the kitchen where she busied herself with the washing up.

  “These photographs have been taken over the past few months in about a dozen different locations,” Adam said. “Now bearing in mind your traditional British family values, how do you justify cheating on your young, pregnant wife?”

  The presenter looked to Colin, whose mouth was moving as though he was trying to form some words, but nothing was coming out. “This is the most extraordinary outburst we have ever had on Newsnight,” she said. “Colin, if I could just ask you – ”

  “Fuck you!” he shouted suddenly and jumped to his feet. “This is a fucking BBC trick. Is this what the fucking licence fee pays for these days?”

  “Can I just apologise again for the language - ”

  “Fuck you! Fuck Newsnight! Fuck the BBC!” With that, Colin walked off the set trying to rip his microphone from his jacket as he went. And as he stormed from the studio, the presenter looked to the camera again. “Can I just apologise once more for the language used by our guest. I hope you appreciate this is an unprecedented incident on Newsnight.” She turned to Adam who was neatly tucking his cards back into his satchel. “Adam, for someone who has spoken so strongly in the past about invasion of privacy – surely, you can’t get a greater invasion of privacy than this. And you perpetrated it.”

  Surprisingly, Adam agreed. �
�This was a very difficult course of action to take,” he said, a note of genuine sorrow in his voice. But then, as the presenter recalled, he was an award-winning actor. “For years, many of us have campaigned for stronger control of the press in the UK, or – at the very least – greater protection from press intrusion. But nothing has happened. Indeed, things have gotten worse. Careers have been ruined, families destroyed and in some cases, lives have been lost. It seemed to me the only way to bring this home to the media in this country and, in particular, the staff at the Daily Ear was to give them first-hand experience of what this sort of reporting does to the lives of real people.”

  “And so you chose to humiliate Colin Merroney on live television, and potentially destroy his marriage?”

  Adam relaxed into his seat and turned to the camera. “Colin is just the first of a number of employees at the Daily Ear who are about to get a taste of their own medicine.” Clearly, he was no longer talking to the presenter but directly to those people watching at home. “My team is uploading the full details about Colin Merroney’s adultery to my website as we speak, where you can see plenty more pictures and read the full, exclusive story.”

  “There are more exposés to come?”

  Adam nodded at the presenter and then turned back to the camera, maintaining a look of sadness. “Regretfully, yes. Every three days, for the next couple of weeks, I’ll be uploading a new exposé to my website regarding someone who works at the Daily Ear or its parent company Harvey News Group. The stories won’t be nice, and I’m sure the consequences will be severe. But I genuinely feel this course of action is necessary, because the repercussions of allowing the media in this country to continue spiralling out of control would be disastrous.” He turned to the presenter. “So to quote Colin, it was a tough call but I made it and I’ll stand by it.”